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For all of the first 15 years after Federation in 1901, Australians elected Minority Governments. Nevertheless, the Parliament passed much essential legislation.
The Golden Age myth may not be a particularly relevant concept now unless one refers to a period like the early 1900s when Australia introduced a series of remarkably progressive social and political reforms.
For more than a century, Australian political parties of both Right and Left have presided over a steady shift in power from individual citizens towards large corporate and state institutions.
It's a crazy-mirror class war, where the support of the petit-bourgeoisie is secured in order to turn the full coercive and disruptive power of the state on the obstinately poor.
